In two posts below (see here and here), Eugene questions John Kerry’s underlying thinking about the war on terror based on a somewhat odd analogy Kerry used in a recent New York Times interview. Here is the key quote from the Times story:
When . . . Kerry [was asked] what it would take for Americans to feel safe again, he displayed a much less apocalyptic worldview. “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” Kerry said. “As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”
Eugene considers whether this comparison may reveal Kerry to be a bit soft on terrorism; of all the crimes to pick, Kerry happens to compare terrorism to illegal gambling and other crimes that are generally considered low priorities for law enforcement.
Eugene may be on to something, but there is another, more charitable, explanation for Kerry’s partciular choice of words. Kerry’s first big job after law school was as the First Assistant District Attorney (the #2 prosecutor) with the Middlesex County (Massachusetts) DA’s Office. According to this Boston Globe article, Kerry overhauled the office in part by focusing on the threat of organized crime:
With a $3.8 million infusion of federal funds he helped obtain, Kerry nearly tripled the staff . . . . He launched initiatives that were innovative at the time: special units to prosecute white-collar and organized crime . . . and a system for fast-tracking priority cases to trial. He also directed the investigation that led to the first conviction of Somerville’s Howie Winter, one of the state’s notorious gangsters.
According to this article, Howie Winter was notorious for running an illegal gambling empire:
Among the top cases on which Kerry worked was the prosecution of Howie Winter, an organized crime leader who ran gambling rackets in the Boston area and western Massachusetts. Winter was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
While Kerry’s choice of analogies appears a bit strange at first, it seems plausible that he was simply relying on his experience setting priorities for the Middlesex County DA’s Office back in the 1970s. Kerry prosecuted illegal gambling cases, and presumably had to defend his focus on such cases against critics who claimed that there was no point in prosecuting them.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Kerry is right to see the war on terror as similar to his prior battles against organized crime and illegal gambling. But I think this history may shed some light on why Kerry chose the specific examples he did.
UPDATE: Check out this CNN.com story about how the Bush campaign is planning to use the quote in campaign advertisements.
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